Drill/I Have No Idea: Issue 1 of international magazine

New Zealand’s Powertool
Records is very excited to announce the next step
in NZ-US relations: the first issue of Drill/I Have
No Idea magazine - two magazines in one!

Drill, a quarterly music magazine
published by Powertool Records and now in its 9th year, has
teamed up with I Have No Idea, produced by
Crazy Caveman Productions in the US, to
create a truly trans-national music venture. Each magazine
covers attention-worthy artists from the indie/underground
scenes in both New Zealand and Los Angeles, and a tasty
album is available help bring the articles to life. The
magazine is FREE, while the album is a highly reasonable
$10. Amongst the New Zealand artists on the CD are
Nick Raven, Come Down Kid,
Gold Medal Famous and Sandra
Bell, with US representation courtesy of
Rough Church, Seasons, Black Watch and
Arrica Rose plus many more.

The US
launch party, Best Bands of Los Angeles,
was held on February 16 at the American Legion, with
Seasons, The Black Watch, Greg Franco’s Rough
Church and other LA-based bands celebrating the
birth of the ‘zine.

A New Zealand launch party will be
announced shortly – stay tuned to Powertool’s Facebook page for the announcement.

Kiwiphile Greg Franco is the man behind
I Have No Idea. Born in Los Angeles and raised musically in
the LA '90s music scene, Greg Franco has shared bills with
artists such as Beck, Possum Dickson, Perry
Farrelland Lutefisk.

Powertool
Records, based in Auckland, New Zealand, is a boutique label
with an impressive roster, featuring mostly New
Zealand-based artists but also a good swag of internationals
from the USA, the UK, Canada and Finland. Established in
2002 by music lover and serial gig-goer Andrew
Maitai, releases include the ‘Here Come the
Bulletholes’ series, plus CDs (and vinyl) by the likes
of Bill Direen/The Bilders,
Vorn, Brother Love,
One Man Bannister/The Changing Same
(Matthew Bannister, ex-Sneaky
Feelings), Come Down Kid, Transcendental
Learning Collective, Nick Raven, Robert
Scott (The Bats), Sandra Bell,
Gold Medal Famous and many more.
International releases include records by Rough
Church (Greg Franco),
Azalia Snail, The Black
Watch, Sparrow (Jason
Zumpano) and Lord Bishop – many
of whom have also toured here.As a special appetiser for
you, here are two tracks from the sampler for your listening
pleasure:

Vorn 'A Safe Pair of
Hands'http://powertoolrecords.bandcamp.com/track/vorn-a-safe-pair-of-handsSome
words about Vorn:Simon Sweetman wrpte,
“[Vorn] Colgan is one of this country’s greatest
songwriters, never cloying or faux-romantic; these are
direct songs; honest, cynical, sincere, hilarious and in
many cases ridiculously catchy.” Grant
Smithies concurred – “Here’s a man capable of
wringing great pop from the bleaker aspects of modern urban
life … it’s the sharp eye for sadness that attracts me;
his ability to use humour to expose pain, his affection for
the underdogs.”

The Black Watch “Meg”"The Black
Watch is an absolute psych/janglepop treasure,"
Michael Toland of Trouser Press
observed in the band's entry for that immortal indie rock
resource, having seen the band play no less than three shows
at the 2010 SXSW Music Conference.

Tame Impala’s new album Currents has one of the hallmarks of an enduring album. At first listen it seems like good, if somewhat ordinary, pop but as you go back more and more layers unravel revealing deeply rich, expertly crafted songs. More>>

The winner of the Morgan Foundation’s $20,000 flag competition is “Wā kāinga / Home”, designed by Auckland based Studio Alexander. Economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan set up the competition because he had strong views on what the flag should represent but he couldn’t draw one himself. More>>

They could have been any family of six children – except that five of them were born at once. It will come as a shock to many older New Zealanders to realise that Saturday July 25 is the Lawson quintuplets’ 50th birthday. More>>

Coinciding as it does with the movie Imitation Game which focusses on Alan Turing breaking the Enigma code in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park (“BP”), this book is likely to attract a wide readership. It deserves to do so, as it illustrates that BP was very much more than Turing and his colleagues. More>>

The theme for Māori Language Week 27 July – 2 August 2015 is ‘Whāngaihia te Reo ki ngā Mātua’ ‘Nurture the language in parents’. It aims to encourage and support every day Māori language use for parents and caregivers with children” says Acting Chief Executive Tuehu Harris.. More>>

The hyped sell-out crowd had already packed themselves as close as they could get to the stage before Earl came on. The smell of weed, sweat and beer filled Bodega – more debauched sauna than bar by this point. When he arrived on stage the screaming ... More>>